Wandering Lost
by GBlackwell
Summary: Magician's Nephew AU. "It's your fault! You're the one that wanted to see other worlds!" "Well if you hadn't taken Uncle Andrew's ring, we wouldn't be here in the first place!" One little detail goes awry, and Digory and Polly never make it to the land called Narnia.
1. Concerning a lost ring

**"For want of a nail" story. Takes place in the Magician's Nephew, one of the lesser known Chronicles of Narnia stories...**

**Some minor crossover, but it's never more than implied, and you don't need to know what the works I am referencing are to understand the story.**

* * *

**Wandering Lost**

* * *

There was a lesson in all of this, Digory was sure. In hindsight, he decided that it was same as all of those books his mother had read him as a child: "Curiosity killed the cat." Bad things happen to children who don't do as they're told in stories, children who go seeking answers where they're told not to. It didn't matter how they did it, whether it was eating the fruit off some tree or opening a box that they had given you the key to: if you wanted to do it, it was temptation and if you succumbed you were doomed.

He could have learned that lesson from the thing with the bell. Awakening Jadis had been bad enough, but at least they had managed to get rid of her once they entered the quiet forest. He could have come easily enough to the conclusion that his desire to know what would happen if he rang the bell was bad. He could have gone home and lived a perfectly decent life, without being cruel or nasty to anyone. He could have suppressed that chaotic urge of his to explore things and find the truth for himself, and instead lived contentedly as a professor who knew of magic and other worlds but buried it all in the earth.

He would have preferred that life.

* * *

Polly said it before he could. "This isn't your Uncle's Attic!"

It wasn't, in fact.

"I don't even think this is our world!"

Well, Digory didn't know about that, but it certainly wasn't London. There was not a house or a street or even a cobblestone in sight, but instead white sand rolled out before them to the blank horizon. Violent, hot wind blew in their faces, along with little bits of sand.

Digory was aghast, but he knew what to do. "The ring! Quick!"

She grabbed hold of him and he slipped on the ring. Before they knew it, they were back in the Wood between the Worlds. Digory was expecting to see Jadis still gasping for air in the suffocating clam of the forest, but she was nowhere to be found.

"What happened?" Polly said. "That wasn't… that…"

They both realized at the same time: they were lost. They had jumped into the world of Charn without thinking about how they would know their way back to London. All of the pools that led to the different worlds looked the same, so they had just jumped into one that led to somewhere different in their haste to escape Jadis.

"How do we get home?" Polly asked, quietly.

Digory was terrified, but he calmed himself. "Let's try the one next to it," he said, "We must have just picked the wrong pool."

Polly was upset, but she looked a bit better as he said this. "Okay…" she responded.

"In fact… I think this one was it," he said, turning toward another pool. "Let's go."

Polly nodded, and they switched their rings and jumped in.

* * *

It turned out that one wasn't the right one, either.

"We just need to keep trying," Digory said, "I mean, it has to be one of these… we'll find it, eventually."

Polly's lips formed a straight line. She nodded, "Let's mark the places we've already been," she said, "That way, we won't end up visiting the same place twice." She paused and said, "We _should _have done that the first time."

Digory thought up a sour remark, but he kept it to himself. He was too anxious to waste time arguing. So he agreed, and they began by marking the pools they had been to, though soon they found that they couldn't quite remember which ones they had tried.

"We'll just mark the ones we're sure of, and if we have to re-vist some places, that's okay," he said.

They would get out of this, he was sure.

* * *

There was no sense of hours passing in the Wood between the Worlds, so Digory had no idea how long they had been searching. He did know, however, that by now they had visited over forty worlds (forty was where he had given up counting) and he was starting to get dizzy with hunger. They never stayed more than a few moments in each world, but none of them had looked anything like London.

"How could we have missed it this long!" Polly cried in frustration, "We should have found it by now!"

"I don't know," Digory replied.

She looked back at all of the marked pools they had gone to, and suddenly her lip began trembling. "This is all _your _fault," she choked venomously.

"What?!" he snapped, "What are you getting at!"

"_You're _the one that wanted to explore the other worlds," she said, "If I hadn't listened to you, we wouldn't be in this mess right now!"

Digory was taken aback, but he wasn't about to let the blame fall on him. "Well _I _never would have gotten the idea if _you _hadn't taken Uncle Andrew's ring!"

They argued for a long while, until they were both exhausted. Digory would never be able to remember everything they said, but he would be able to remember that it ended with both of them sitting on the ground, too tired to speak or move to the next world.

"I'm hungry," Polly said.

"Me too," Digory replied.

Polly looked at him, "We need to keep going," she said.

"I'm too tired," Digory said, "Let's just… let's just sit for a while." He knew that, since he was a boy, he should have been the one getting things done and making sure they kept moving, but rright now he was too miserable.

"No!" Polly said, shaking him, "You know what this place does to you… stay here too long and you'll forget everything!"

He remembered that, how the Wood had been so peaceful that at first he would have been happy to forget everything and just sit peacefully until he died. So he got up, albeit a bit unwillingly. "Alright," he said, "Where now?"

"I think," Polly said, "I think the next world we go to, we should look for some food. It won't do to be searching hungry the entire time. And if we need to sleep, we should find a place in one of the worlds, as well. That way, we won't need to worry about suddenly forgetting about going home."

"Fine," he said wearily, "Let's go."

* * *

They had to steal food in the next world. They were lucky enough to get to a town, but no one there spoke English and no one seemed willing to give food to beggars. It was surprisingly easy, especially since the moment they were caught they could disappear back into the Woods, with all of the food with them.

"So we're thieves now," Digory said.

Polly winced. "Well, better than starving."

The world they spent the night in was in the middle of summer. Digory closed his eyes to the sight of fireflies floating in the air as gracefully as fairies.

* * *

There were many worlds that they had to stay longer than a few moments in.

One contained a long, green field and a path that led to a castle in the distance. Skeletons attacked them on the road, biting and clawing at them. Polly froze up in terror. Digory, somehow so desperate that fear was a non-issue, managed to pick up a stick and try and beat them away. It didn't work: they were saved by a traveler wearing green, a boy not much older than them but who wielded a sword with the skill of a trained warrior. He took them to a village, where the monster didn't follow.

"Who are you?" Polly asked, "What were those things?"

The boy in green looked at them curiously, clearly not understanding.

"Where are we?" Digory asked, "What is this place called?"

The boy didn't respond, but only looked at them for a moment, before walking off.

"Wait!" Polly cried, "Before you go, um, thank you!"

The boy looked back at them, and for a moment seemed to understand.

* * *

In one world, they found themselves in a small village. They found themselves under the glares of everyone in the town. They thought that the place wasn't used to strangers at first, but they soon realized that was a grievous understatement. They in fact liked to stone strangers.

Digory thanked God he and Polly could disappear from any of these places at a whim. Otherwise, they would have been dead.

* * *

One world had dragons. He remembered gasping in awe as he watched them soar through the air above him.

"Dragons!" he said, "This place has dragons!"

Polly had been considerably less excited about the dragons, instead focusing on how dangerous they must be and insisting they stay as far away from them as possible.

It was in this world that they met the witch with purple lips and green eyes. She transported them to her abode against their will and tried to get them to drink. When they refused (she was clearly a witch and everyone knew what happened to children who accepted things from witches) she forced it down their throats, and suddenly they could understand her.

"There now," she said, "Now we can speak together as though we knew the same language."

"What?" Digory said, "How… what was that?"

"A concoction that allows the one who drinks it to understand any language they hear, and which causes them to be understood by all who hear them," the witch said.

"That's all very well and good," Polly said, "Now what are you going to do with us?"

The witch smiled, "Why, I just want to know where you come from. It isn't this world, is it?"

The children were startled. Digory tried to reach for the ring, but found he couldn't move.

"I'll let you go," the witch said, "But first you need to tell me everything."

Digory and Polly were lucky the witch kept to her promise…

* * *

It was the world with the slavers that convinced the two they needed to start carrying weapons. They had been attacked so fast that Digory had barely managed to escape, and Polly hadn't. The next three days he spent trying to get to her were the most agonizing in his life.

Good thing it turned out to be as simple as tracking her down, getting caught, being put in the cell next to her, and then switching the rings at the right moment (Good thing they hadn't been confiscated, yet). They escaped to the Woods, and Polly sobbed into his chest for a good long time.

"Next time," she said when she was done, "I'm going to get a gun or a knife."

Digory agreed.

And then she said it. "Digory…? We're never going to get home, are we?"

He didn't know how to respond, so he responded like the child he was and started crying.

* * *

"There's no such thing as a painless lesson," the denizen of one world said to him. Digory had to agree, though he wasn't sure if there was a lesson to be learned from any of this. Was he supposed to learn that he shouldn't have wanted to explore, that he should have simply gone back to London and been content never knowing about all these other worlds? He didn't know, all he could think of was how worried his sick mother would be, and how he wouldn't be there for her as she slowly wasted away…

"Let's go to the next one," Polly said with grim determination each time. There was despair in her eyes, like she no longer expected to get home, but was motivation by the memory of hope she had once had.

"Does it even matter anymore?" he asked once.

She didn't really answer, but just said, "We have to keep moving forward. If we give up, then… then…"

Then nothing.

"Okay," Digory said, "Let's go."

* * *

**The premise of the fic, in case you haven't read The Magician's Nephew or have read it but have no idea what the hell just happened, is this: Digory and Polly don't think of marking the pool that leads home when they decide to go explore Charn. This causes them to be lost (maybe) forever.**

**Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed, and feel free to leave any sort of comment you like. Flames are welcome, but I preferred constructive criticism.**

**Edit: I accidentally placed this as "In progress" when I meant to put it as "Complete." Sorry for the mix-up. I _could _see myself continuing it, but I highly doubt I would, considering my history with updating things in the past._  
_**


	2. Concerning Narnia and Uncle Andrew

**A note from GBlackwell: the first thing I would like to say is I DIDN'T ACTUALLY WRITE THIS. There, now that it's in caps maybe it's got your attention.**

**Anyway, this is actually written by Storyseeker, who had a lot of questions about what happened next to which I had only a few vague answers. So he ended up brainstorming this fic and writing it himself as a continuation to Wandering Lost. He wanted it published, and thought that it wouldn't make sense to publish a continuation separately, and I ultimately agreed.**

**I was supposed to edit it, to make our styles match more (since we actually had noticeably different writing styles) but I got lazy, forgot, couldn't figure out a good way to edit the entire style, and ultimately gave up. The fic is (pretty much) unaltered from what he sent me.**

**So, I TAKE NO CREDIT FOR ANY OF THIS. All praise goes to Storyseeker. Also, check out his account.**

…

_**The Chronicles of Narnia don't belong to me. I'm not in this for money, but just for fun.**_

0000000000

_"Get treated like a dumb animal long enough, that's what you become."_

―_Trumpkin (Prince Caspian: Disney Movie)_

**Ketterley House; Andrew's Study:**

Andrew Ketterley paced the floor of his study for what felt like the six hundredth time, with a tall glass of brandy in his hand, the third one he had had in the last hour, which he had been taking regular sips out of.

'Four hours,' he thought anxiously. 'It's been four hours now. What the devil is that boy playing at?'

It had actually been over four and a half hours since he had, most cleverly he thought, tricked that young friend of his nephews to take one of his precious rings. After she had successfully, and miraculously, vanished into thin air, he had then sent his nephew to go after her, with the means of returning.

He had been most proud of himself at the time, as he had done what no man had accomplished before, what no man on Earth no longer believed in, by creating a means to transport ones self to another reality through the means of magic. Yes, he had tricked that young girl into using his rings, but what else could he have done. He was an old man of poor health. He couldn't be expected to take the risks of being flung into another universe, so someone young and stronger than he had to go first, obviously. He was the scholar, and they were the test subjects. Sacrifices had to be made for the greater good, of course.

But it had been hours since his nephew had gone to go rescue that girl, and so far neither of them had returned. What was keeping them?!

A knock on his door suddenly sounded, nearly making him drop his brandy. He thought for one moment that it might be Digory at long last returned, until he remembered that the rings would have most likely brought him back to the same place from where he had left from, which was inside his study.

"Andrew!" came the firm voice of his sister. "Open up right now!"

Taking another sip to steady his nerves, Andrew put his drink down on the table in the middle of the room, and went to open the door. He found his sister, Letitia, looking in at him with a worried expression on her face.

"Have you seen Digory at all today?" she all but demanded. "It's past supper-time, and he's nowhere to be found. I have even had a visit from one of the neighbours, Mr and Mrs. Plummer, who are also missing their daughter. Apparently they can't find her either, and thought she might be round here playing with him."

Andrew nervously swallowed the lump in his throat. "Err, Digory? No, no, can't say that I have, old gel. But you know boys. He's probably out playing, and hasn't noticed the time yet."

Letitia gave him a hard look. "Digory knows far better than to be out so late without telling anyone, and he never waits so long to go see his mother, poorly as she is." She chewed her lower lip. "I've asked around, but no one's seen or heard nothing of him, and it's getting dark now. I'll have to go to the police."

At her last words, a shiver of panic rose up his spine, and it took all his self-control not to shout out his last words. "Here, now I don't think there'll be any need for that, my dear gel! After all, boys will be boys, you know. I'm sure if we wait just a little longer, he'll…"

"Andrew!" Letitia snapped. "My mind is made up, and if you aren't more worried for your own nephew's safety, then you are in even far worse shape that I ever took you for." With that, she turned around and stomped away in her padded, high heeled feet, making the sweat on Andrew's brow glisten even brighter, as he hurried after her.

"I am worried, Letitia dear. I am just trying to look at this with a more calm and calculated opinion, that's all. Remember all those times I went missing for hours, when I was a boy? I always came back."

"That's because everyone knew you were always up in your room," she replied coldly, making Andrew a little red in the face. "You rarely went outdoors, as I recall. Hardly even left your own room most times. Sarah!" She called out to her maid. "Sarah, call me a cab, please!"

"Letty, please…" he called her by her nickname, used mainly by their sister Mabel, and nephew, but she paid him no heed.

_"Mabel's resting at the moment," she suddenly said to him. "So don't you go worrying her about this! She's sick enough without having to learn that her only child has now gone missing. God forgive me for saying this, but I'm actually a little relieved that her illness has made her so weak and tired, as hopefully she won't notice that he's gone. If she does wake, just tell her that Digory went in to see her while she was asleep, and that he's resting now."_

Helpless, and not knowing what else to do, Andrew simply nodded, and watched her as she put on her hat and coat, and left through the front door, to where a hansom cab was already pulling up. She wasted no time for pleasantries, as she quickly got inside, and told the cabby to take her to the police.

"Giddeyup, Strawberry!" said the man in the hansom, a red-faced man in a bowler hat, and gently whipped the horse's rear, electing it to move on.

"Calamity!" he swore below his breath, and practically ran all the way back up to his study in the attic. He all but slammed the door behind him, and went to grab his drink again from the table, and downed the rest of it in one gulp.

"In the name of God, what the devil am I supposed to do now?!" he said, as he poured yet another glass full. He knew this was serious now. Although he doubted that anyone could ever figure out that he had ever had anything to do with Digory's disappearance, considering the circumstances and all, his sister had always had a rather annoyingly talent for knowing when he was hiding something from her. Not to mention how nervous he always got, and being made to talk to the police would surely not help.

"They won't be able to prove I had anything to do with his disappearance, though," he said, speaking to himself, trying to be reassuring. "How could they? I mean, who in their right mind would ever believe that someone had been transported off this world into another, through use of a magic ring?"

'But what if they think that I had simply had him kidnapped?' he suddenly thought. 'Or worse, maybe even murder! They might think I had something to do with it, maybe accidentally killed him, and then had his body hidden away. After all, I was the one who saw him last, as far as anyone knows, and no one can account for my presence all day.'

Needless to say, Andrew was becoming quite paranoid and frantic, which was not all that surprising. People who have done something wrong are often the ones who act the most irrational, because they are most afraid of being caught.

After going through his options, arguing with himself, again and again, Andrew finally came to the decision that he had no choice. With the police probably on their way there right at that second to talk to him and everyone else, he had but one option open to him, which was to go after the children himself.

"Confound that boy!" he swore again, as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a handkerchief, covered it over his hand, and went to pick up two rings from the tray on the table. "All he had to do was go collect his young lady friend and come back. How could he have messed up something so simple?!"

Feeling more than a little nervous, he made sure not to let either of the rings touch his skin until he was ready, but finding the courage to do that was hard, especially for him. "I shouldn't be doing this, not at my time of life, and my health as it is. Damn you, Digory! This is what I sent you for, and now I have to come save _you_."

Taking a deep breath, he downed the last of his brandy away, and touched the yellow ring.

0000000000

'Oh, oh, is this delirium?' Andrew thought, as he felt himself rising to a green light. 'Oh dear lord, am I dead? I knew it! I tried to come save my good for nothing nephew, and I end up getting killed for it.'

But before he could continue his wailings, he rushed upwards, and suddenly he found himself standing the middle of a small pond amidst the trees of what looked like a luscious green forest. Even more peculiar, was that his clothes appeared to be as dry as they had been back home.

"By…" he tried to say, but could not stop shivering. He stepped out of the pond, and onto some of the solid ground. There seemed to be more of the same ponds all over the place.

"Digory!" he called out. "Miss Plummer! Anybody here?!"

He called and shouted for a few minutes, but no one answered. He wanted to find Digory and box his ears for causing him all this grief, yet for some reason he was feeling a little light-headed. The reason being was the effect of the Wood he was in, combined together with the drunkenness of the four brandys he had recently consumed. Still, the threat of the police, and his sister's rage, when he got home was enough to keep him focused, at least for the moment.

"Damn boy!" he swore. "Where is he?! If I find he's been back home all this time… Oh, I bet that's where he is! He was probably hiding somewhere, waiting for me to leave so that he could have some payback on me. It's just the kind of spiteful thing he would do!"

Now the idea that Digory would do such a thing was obviously ridiculous. Besides the fact that he was now currently trapped between worlds, he was also in no way such a cruel and vindictive child. The reason Andrew said this was simply because he was looking for any excuse to return home, and the reason he believed Digory would play such a trick was because it was just the sort of thing that he would do if he were in the same position. The thought that Digory was not as nasty as Andrew was had not even occurred to him.

But he had already convinced himself of this delusion, and was hastening to open his handkerchief and take out the green ring to transport back home. He had just taken out the handkerchief, and was turning around to walk back to the pond he had been standing in just minutes ago. He didn't know why, but he had a feeling he should be standing in the same place he was when he first arrived in this strange wood.

Unfortunately, he was so focused on getting his ring out that he wasn't paying any attention to where he was going. Not that he was totally to blame for that, as the Wood had up until then been completely quiet and supposedly devoid of all life. So it was a bit of a surprise when a small but fat guinea-pig, with a yellow ring tied with a tape to its back, scuttled forward, and unwittingly got in Andrew's way.

The guinea-pig was in fact one of Andrews, which he had used as a subject for his early experiments involving the rings. Obviously it had been transported to the Wood, where it had remained ever since. It had been sleeping most peacefully, until Andrew's loud voice had awakened it, and it had come around to see what the noise was. It never counted on Andrew's big feet, though.

"Whu…!" said Andrew, as he stepped on the guinea-pig. The animal gave a sharp squeak in protest, startling the old Londoner who was still feeling pretty jittery from coming to this world, and slightly drunk. He temporary lost his balance, and stumbled into one of the other nearby pools, just as he had then gotten hold of his green ring.

The next thing Andrew knew, he was lying facedown, not in one of the pools, which he swore he had stumbled into, but on a patch of dry grass. He could also hear voices.

"_What is it?" _

"_Darn if I know. It must be a new creature." _

"_But Aslan has gone, and his song has long since ended. Where could it have come from?" _

"_He must have created it before he left, obviously." _

Opening his eyes, he slowly lifted his head, as he rubbed the back of it. "Ohhh, my poor head. What a fearful dream I had…"

"_Did you hear that? It spoke."_

"_No, I think that was only the wind. Looks more like a withered tree to me."_

Andrew turned his face to address whomever was speaking, but when he did he got the next biggest shock of his life, and found not men standing before him, but beasts.

There were dozens of various animals all around him; small creatures like a couple of water-rats, squirrels and rabbits, to bigger ones like warthogs, bulldogs, donkeys and horses,, and finally, to his horror, he saw larger beasts like a huge elk, a massive bear, and an enormous elephant!

Andrew gulped, and fainted.

0000000000

"What is it? Is it animal, vegetable or mineral?" the Bulldog asked.

"It's a tree!" the Warthog claimed. "See the way it fell down. Animals don't do that."

Around them, more animals were approaching, having heard the commotion, and curious to see what this new and unknown _thing_ was. A lot of them soon joined in on the debate, offering their own opinions. One of the bears had agreed with the Warthog, not believing the new creature was an animal, judging by how it had fallen down, until he tried standing up, only to end up falling over, too.

These creatures were, of course, Narnians, as Andrew had inadvertently transported himself into their world by accident. But by the time he had arrived, Narnia had long since been brought into existence, its inhabitants given life and intelligence, and Aslan had already left, leaving the Narnians with their new world, after giving them a few words of wisdom to guide them in their new lives.

_"Creatures, I give you yourselves. I give to you for ever this land of Narnia. I give you the woods, the fruits, the rivers. I give you the stars and I give you myself. The Dumb Beasts whom I have not chosen are yours also. Treat them gently and cherish them, but do not go back to their ways lest you cease to be Talking Beasts. For out of them you were taken and into them you can return. Do not so." _

Aslan had spoken one other thing, which had been most curious. He had said, "How strange. I had been expecting some others to arrive, but it seems there are none." When the Narnians had asked him about this, all he said was that the Deep Magic must have decided to choose a different path for Narnia's destiny. The Narnians had then asked what their destiny should be, but all he said was that they must learn that for themselves. He only asked that they remember his words of wisdom to guide them.

He had left shortly after that, departing for other lands unknown to attend to. His final words were that he would return when truly needed.

The Narnians talked and argued amongst themselves, wondering about the new creature that was Andrew Ketterley. Some wondered if they should try calling for Aslan to return, to tell them what the creature was and what to do with it, but everyone agreed that to pray to him over something so trivial was ridiculously unwise and stupid.

And so the debate went on, with some believing it was an animal, one rabbit believing it was some kind of large lettuce, another thinking it was a joke, and many others believing the Warthog's opinion.

0000000000

Something cold and wet splashed on Andrew, soaking him to the bone, and awoke him instantly.

"What the…?!" he remarked, and flung his arms up to swat away at whatever was drenching him. As he struggled to get up, he found to his shock that he had been buried up to his knees, and all the terrible creatures he had seen before were still there, surrounding him, including the huge elephant that was now standing over him, soaking him with water shooting out from its trunk.

"You hear that?" the Bulldog exclaimed. "I'm certain I heard it spoke then!"

Dozens of beasts then began talking, some agreeing with him and some not, believing that it was still the wind in its branches creaking. The one, however, who made the most noise was Andrew. The moment he heard the dog actually speak, he became convinced that he had finally lost his mind.

'I just have imagined it,' he thought, trying to convince himself. 'My nerves are out of order, and I must have drunk too much brandy. Whoever heard of a talking dog?'

Despite all the other Narnian beasts that were also talking, Andrew blacked out their words, and convinced himself further and further that he heard nothing but simple beast sounds, like roars, howls and barks…etc. He was a practical man, and couldn't acknowledge what was occurring around him. And the problem with trying to make yourself stupider is that you very often succeed, like Andrew was.

He screamed and howled, trying in vain to pull his legs free from the earth, to run, only to find that they had both been securely buried in. Fortunately, his shouts finally convinced the Narnians that he was indeed a living creature of some kind, and not a tree, even though they still didn't know what kind of a creature he was.

"Perhaps he's some kind of hairless ape?" a mole suggested, as he dug out Andrew's legs. "His hands do look a little like theirs."

As the rest of them pondered this, Andrew got his feet free from the mud, and then tried to make a run for it, running as fast as his legs could carry him. He didn't make it very far, though, as another elephant, one even huger than the one before, stepped in front of him, and grabbed him with its trunk around his waist.

This one was the Bull-elephant, the first one's husband, who had come by, while Andrew was unconscious, to see what all the fuss was about. Like many of them, he found the new creature an interesting conundrum, and fastened his trunk around Andrew's waist, and lifted him high as though he weighed nothing more than a rag-cloth.

"Flighty little thing, isn't he," he said, as he turned Andrew around to stare at him in the face, making him blanch and shrink his head further between his shoulders in fear.

"Well, he may be an animal of some kind, but he's definitely no Talking Animal," the Warthog remarked, as the Bull-elephant turned Andrew around for everyone to get a better look. "We've all spoken, yet he's made no reply."

"I got the impression that it was trying to speak, though," said a Badger, and then called up to the now green-faced man. "Hello, stranger! Can you understand any of us?!" But Andrew, of course, made no reply, and just continued groaning, as he lay limb in mid-air, wrapped up in the elephant's trunk.

"See that! No way is he a Talking Animal then," said a Jackdaw.

"Maybe it's an animal that thinks it can talk?" a Donkey said brightly.

"Either way, what are we to do with him now, since he's obviously no tree?" a squirrel asked.

"I think we should keep it contained for now," the female cow-elephant suggested. "It's getting late, and we don't want it wandering around in the dark. It might hurt itself. Plus, the poor thing looks as though it hasn't had a decent meal in weeks. See how thin it is?"

The others all agreed on that, so the Bull-elephant carried him over to where there were a few trees growing in a circle. The other animals were already pulling the branches of them down, and twisting them around, to form a small cage. Once they were finished, the elephant lowered Andrew inside it.

The second he released him, Andrew stood up, attempting to bolt again, but the animals had made the cage too secure. He pulled at the branches, but there were too many of them twisted around one another, making them as thick as ropes.

'Since when are beasts smart enough to put a man in a cage?' thought Andrew, but he didn't have time to wonder this, before something hit him on the head. "Wha…?" he started to say, but stopped as several more small things hit him on the brow.

The things hitting him were in fact nuts, which the squirrels had gathered to give to him, for his supper. Since they couldn't get in the cage with him, they were now throwing them at him between the vine-bars of the cage, like human children who threw peanuts at the animals in the zoo. And they weren't the only ones.

Andrew turned away, to block his face from the bombarding nuts, only to have a bunch of thistles thrown at him from the other direction. This course had come from the Donkey, as it was his favourite type of thing to eat. After that, suddenly, Andrew felt something drop on top of his head, and slid down the back of his collar, making him squeal, thinking that a snake had gotten in.

It was actually a worm, though, not a snake, but Andrew found that even more horrifying, as he struggled to get the wriggling thing out of his shirt. As he did, several birds from up above were dropping even more of them on him.

'What are these foul things doing to me?!' he screamed mentally, and turned away yet again. And, just as before, something else was waiting to hit him in the face. This was a honeycomb from a wild bees' nest, which the bear had found and brought to him.

Andrew yelped, as he heard the unmistakable buzzing sound of the bees occupy the honeycomb, and furiously wiped at his face to get the sticky stuff off him, while walking backwards to get away from the insects. Unfortunately, he forgot about the Donkey's thistles, and ended up falling backwards, sitting right on top of them.

"OWWWW!" he screamed.

"Why's it doing that?" the bear asked the Warthog. He was a great lover of honey, and couldn't understand why the creature was not eating it, and instead seemed to be backing away from it.

The Warthog merely shrugged. "Perhaps it's not hungry just yet. But it's got a lot of the honey in its mouth, so that's bound to have done it some good."

After everyone was finished feeding the creature, the Narnians stood by, watching it in interest. Some of them went up to the cage, tapping at it to get Andrew's attention, only for him to shrink back further into his cage.

"It's probably tired, and wants to eat alone," the she-elephant said. "We should leave it for now, to give it some peace and quiet. We'll deal with it tomorrow."

"Shouldn't someone stay in case of anything?" the Jackdaw added sensibly.

"I will," the bear volunteered. He was actually growing quite fond of the strange creature, and also he secretly hoped that if it still didn't want the honey, then maybe he could get it back for himself.

Everyone agreed, and slowly disembarked to return to their homes, some only pausing to give a little wave goodbye to Andrew. The bear, meanwhile, sat down near the cage, relaxing until he soon fell into a pleasant slumber.

The moment Andrew saw that all of the beasts had gone, he once more tried to pull the branch and vines of his cage away, but without success. He felt like breaking down and crying, until he remembered something else.

"The rings!" he almost cried out, having forgotten all about them in the day's excitement. All he would need is to touch the rings, and all this would be over and forgotten, like a bad dream. He hastily reached into his pocket to pull them out, and found…nothing?

"No…" he whispered, his hand still in his muddy pocket, feeling nothing but the earth leftover from his burial a while ago. He then began pulling all his pockets out, and frantically searched the ground of his cage, but found nothing.

Whatever happened to the rings was anyone's guess. With everything that had happened to Andrew that day, they could be anywhere. He might have dropped them just as he was entering the Narnian world, and they could be lost somewhere perhaps in limbo. Or he might have dropped them somewhere when he had arrived, and they were tread into the earth. Or they could have fallen into the hole he had been buried in, when the Narnians thought he was a tree. Either way, they were now gone, most likely forever, leaving Andrew trapped in the Narnian world.

"NOOOOO!" he screamed, as he continued to search aimlessly in his cage. His cries woke the bear up, who padded over to him.

"Hey now, what's up, little creature? No need to howl like that." The bear was attempting to sound comforting, to calm Andrew down, and it seemed to work, as the moment he spoke Andrew had immediately silenced and backed up into his cage again. The reason he did this, though, was because the bear's words had sounded to Andrew more like, "Gr-r-r-arrh-ow!"

The bear smiled, and attempted to reach his paw in, to stroke Andrew's shaggy head, but Andrew made sure to keep well out of his reach.

'Poor thing must be scared,' the bear thought, and then left to go back to sleep, leaving Andrew to sit shivering in his cage, terrified.

0000000000

"Brandy!" Andrew wailed, wishing he had but a drop to calm his nerves. He had hoped that with the dawn's light he would have found his rings, but alas they were nowhere to be seen. They were gone!

That damn, fearful bear was still there, too. It had planted itself right by his prison, occasionally sticking its paw through the branches at him. No doubt it was hungry, and wanted to get at him for its meal, Andrew believed. He shivered in fright, trying to put as much distance as he could from it.

The bear, meanwhile, was indeed hungry, but he had a heckling more for honey or fish for his breakfast than some scrawny, dirty and over-aged, unknown creature. He had tried being friendly to the new thing, by continuing to keep trying to talk to it, and had even offered it his paw in friendship, but so far the thing just kept its distance, as it had before.

'Maybe I should clean my paw first,' he thought, wondering if the creature had an acute sense of smell like the Bulldog.

The sound of approaching hoof, paw and handprints then sounded, and the rest of the Narnians beasts soon came into view. The elephants were the first and easiest to see, considering their large sizes, followed by the rhinoceroses, elks, bulls, horses and others.

"Did it sleep well?" the she-elephant asked, looking at the still unknown creature, which shrunk back further.

"I assume so," the bear replied, "though it does keep making an odd noise. Keeps saying something that sounds like, _brandy_, I think."

"What's brandy?" asked one of the Hares.

"Beats me."

"Maybe that's its name?" suggested the Donkey.

"Pretty odd name," said the Bull-elephant, though his wife disagreed, saying, "I think it's a sweet name."

"I object to that remark very strongly," added the Bulldog. That particular phrase seemed to be a favourite of his, as he often said it, especially to the she-elephant whose opinions and views he was forever contradicting.

In the end, the Narnians decided that for now the word, Brandy, would become the new creature's official name, until they learned otherwise.

So, what are we do to with him then?" the bear then asked everyone, continuing their earlier discussion.

"Him?" said the warthog.

"Oh yes. During the night I saw for myself, and concluded, that it is indeed, most definitely, a male." The bear had awoken during the night, and had spotted Andrew at the side of his cage, _relieving_ himself.

"Mayhap we should look to Aslan for answers?" said a Badger.

"I thought we agreed not to annoy him over so meagre a matter?" asked the Warthog.

"I don't mean pray to him to return to us, to tell us what to do. I meant listen to his words, take heed of his wisdom, what he spoke to us upon our awakening. Do you not recall what he said?" Without waiting for an answer, the Badger recapped Aslan's message, _"The Dumb Beasts whom I have not chosen are yours also. Treat them gently and cherish them, but do not go back to their ways lest you cease to be Talking Beasts. For out of them you were taken and into them you can return."_

The Bulldog frowned. "You seem intent on believing this creature is indeed a dumb beast. But can we know for sure?"

"Well, it certainly doesn't act intelligent," offered the Donkey, as he pawed at Andrew, who was looking at them all in curious but terrified fascination. "It doesn't speak, and it has yet to show any intelligent behaviour."

Most of the beasts had to agree on that, even the bear who had spent the whole night with him.

"Perhaps, though, we should ask the others?" said the Bull-elephant then. "The other creatures and beings to whom Aslan brought into this world. The Centaurs, the Dryads, the Naiads, the Dwarfs, the Satyrs and the Fauns. They are new like us, yet some possess more wit and brains than we do."

"Now I do object to that remark _very_ strongly!" announced the Bulldog.

"He has a point, though," the Badger remarked. "We should include the others in this, as one creature of Narnia involves all Narnians."

Everyone agreed.

"Well, before we get the others, I do feel that there is one thing of importance that we should definitely do first," said a Panther, looking

0000000000

Andrew sat, sulking in his cage. The beasts had been leaving him alone for the past few minutes, as most of them had run off in different directions, except for a few who had remained apparently to give him his _breakfast_.

After the others had left, a few of the animals had begun throwing some more nuts at him, which nearly got into his eyes and, Andrew believed, had nearly blinded him. They also threw in some more thistles that stung him painfully.

Andrew groaned, as he pulled at his wet, muddy clothes, still soaking from yesterday, with the mud encrusted on them. "Dear God, what I wouldn't give for a bath!" he moaned out loud.

Maybe it was plain bad luck, or maybe Fate had been listening and decided to play a joke on him, but whatever the reason, Andrew suddenly had his wish granted, though not in the way he would have preferred.

He had been sitting, gazing out at the passing beasts, wondering where he could have lost the rings, so he did not notice the large footsteps coming up from behind him. Nor did he notice the long trunk that hovered over the top of his coop, until it began gushing something out down on him.

"AARRRGHHHH!" Andrew screamed, as a gallon of cold water splashed down on him, soaking him once more to the bone. But that wasn't the end of it. For as soon as the elephant (which was the she) had finished soaking him, several small rodents (four squirrels, two red and two grey) came bustling in through the branches, armed with what looked like small brushes, as they clambered all over him.

At first, Andrew shrieked and tried to pull them all off him, only to stop when that dreaded long trunk once more descended, and wrapped itself all around him, binding his arms to his sides, and held him in place while the squirrels did their work. The brushes they held were just ordinary short branches, fitted with some leaves at the end to act as the brush, and tipped off with a soapy substance they had gotten from some plant.

The Panther was a stickler for cleanliness and neatness, as he often spent hours just washing and grooming himself (like most felines), so, needless to say, after seeing Andrew in his shocking state, with the mud and the shaggy hair, he declared that what he needed now more than anything was a good clean. The others couldn't argue with that, so a few of them had set to work on him.

Once they had settled, they began scrubbing at every part of him. One squirrel, who was sitting on one of Andrew's shoulders, brushed and massaged his hair, while a second squirrel sat on his other one, washing his face and ears. The other two were working on the rest of him, as they tried washing the mud off his suit. It didn't occur to them to have him take it off because Narnians at that time had no concept of clothing. Since none of the Narnian beasts wore any, they just assumed the garments were part of his skin.

Whatever soapy substance it was that they were using on him, it was good, as it lathered up quickly and fully. After several minutes, he looked a little like the Abominable Snowman, upon which his groomers then scrambled out of the coop, right before yet another gush of cold water came falling down on him, rinsing him of all the soap. This water came from the Bull-elephant, as his wife was still holding Andrew in place.

Andrew coughed and spluttered, as the soap and water got in his mouth and nose. On the plus side, though, at least he was clean now.

The squirrels then came back in again, this time carrying with them various kinds of flowers, the kind he had never seen before in his life, and some gigantic leaves. They leaped onto him again, and the male elephant's trunk then descended down, also carrying some leaves of the same kind. Before Andrew could contemplate what was going on, they began rubbing him with the leaves, using them as towels to dry him off.

"MMMMM!" he muffled angrily under the leaf on his face. The squirrel responsible for that just laughed, thinking he was playing, and tickled him with his tail.

After they were finished drying him, they then took the flowers and began rubbing them onto him. The reason they were doing this was because the flower's pollen made an excellent perfume, so they could get the scent to stick onto him, to take away what they thought was a rather vile smell. (Part of this vile smell was Andrew's morning breath, from years of smoking cigars, the alcohol, the clothes he hadn't changed since yesterday morning, and the fact that Narnians had never smelled a human before then.)

Before long, Andrew was dried off, and smelling like a giant petunia (his most hated flower incidentally), and the squirrel was once more on his head, brushing his hair into a more orderly state.

"There!" the squirrel said proudly, and jumped down with the others to view their handiwork. Andrew's hair had been a little long, but because it was so shaggy, it had always been standing up on end, at least until today. The squirrel had combed it all back, until it was almost shoulder-length, and it also had a few petals left over from the flowers in it.

He looked like somebody's grandmother trying to dress up like a man, but the animals thought he looked nice. They had enjoyed grooming him, the same way that a child liked to play dress-up with their dolls.

Andrew wanted to shout and throw stuff at the squirrels, since they were among the smallest of the animals he had seen since coming to Narnia (though a Narnian squirrel was as big as a terrier), but the terrifyingly huge faces of the two elephants above him kept him quiet and still.

The She-elephant then uncurled her trunk from him, and stepped back with her husband. Andrew looked up, and gave them both a hated but still fearful glare, but they were not looking at him at that moment, so they did not notice.

When he wondered what they were looking at, he turned his head to see a group coming towards him, making Andrew shiver and moan, wondering how many more vile animals he would have to attend with. But his misery was soon replaced with elated joy, as he noticed several small men among the group.

'Merciful heaven!' he thought with relief and delight. 'There are men on this God forsaken world after all. Rather small, though.'

The men coming towards him were in fact Dwarfs, but Andrew had no qualms about that. He had seen midgets at a circus once when he was a child, so he just assumed that was what these chaps were, and that they had to be these beast's keepers or trainers.

'Definitely need to beef up their animal keeping here,' he thought distastefully, considering what he had gone through with them. 'A good whip and some chains is what they should have. I'll be sure to mention that to…'

His thoughts were interrupted, though, when he got a better look at the rest of the group. He had spotted the Dwarfs first, as they were at the lead, and looked the most human. And when he had seen them, he had been so elated at seeing what he thought were ordinary, though very small, men, he hadn't paid much attention to the rest. But now they were upon him, and he couldn't help but stare.

There were two Dwarfs, walking together with five other…beings. Andrew wasn't certain what else to call them, as they definitely weren't human. One of them looked like a goat walking on two legs, while another looked at first like an ordinary man, except he had furry legs and two horns on his head. Another looked like a man that appeared as though he had been spewed by the sea, as he had greeny-blue skin, seemed to be covered in algae, and had a crown of rushes on his head.

The last two were, to Andrew, the more frightening. One looked like a lady, but there was something odd about her. As he peered closer, he noticed to his shock that she seemed to be made entirely of petals and leaves, and was floating toward him in an airy, translucent state, like a ghost. Finally, the last one, again, looked like a man, but only from his head down to his waist. Beyond that his body was that of a horse!

Andrew felt like his head was spinning, as he couldn't comprehend what he was seeing. There was a woman of flowers (who was in fact a Dryad), a man half horse, two goat-like people, and one man who gave a whole new meaning to the word, _Sea-Man_, actually walking towards him.

"Heh-heh-heh," Andrew giggled lowly, his sense of logic all gone. Everything to his way of thinking was upside down to him now.

The ones coming were representatives of the five of some of the other known races inhabiting Narnia, which were a Dryad, a River God (male Naiad), a Centaur, a Satyr, a Faun, and two Dwarfs (red and black). They had come to see this new creature for themselves, and form their own evaluation of him.

Unfortunately, Andrew's apparent loss of sanity, which steamed from his own arrogance to deny any species beyond his own, and his stupidity to accept what was right in front of him, had left him unable to utter a single coherent word. All he muttered were half-assed words and phrases like, "brandy", "mad", "too much stress", "imagining", and various others, that by the time the representatives had finished seeing him, they concluded the Talking Beasts to be right, that the creature had no intelligence. (Keep in mind; like the beasts, they had never seen a human before either, and didn't know anything about them or what to expect. Everything they decided, they got from pure observation.)

With that final conclusion made, the beasts once more got together to make their final decision concerning _Brandy_. The Centaurs, Dryads and all had decided that since the Beasts were the ones who had first found him, they should be the ones to decide what was to become of him.

The Bulldog had suggested that they release Brandy back into the wild, to live among the other dumb beasts, but the Badger once more stated Aslan's own words about them cherishing and looking after the dumb beasts, for fear of turning back into them, and believed that Brandy's arrival might be a sign from Aslan himself, to test them for their worthiness, and to see how they would treat him.

"Would he do that so soon, though?" the She-elephant said. "I mean, he left barely a few hours before Brandy appeared."

"Who knows? Aslan works in mysterious ways after all," the Badger replied. "Myself personally, I believe this lower creature was sent to us for that very reason, to test our faith, and to protect and care for him, as Aslan told us we should for his kind. Besides, from what I have seen I do not think he would last long on his own. He has no claws, no fangs, he can't dig, run fast or fly, and is as strong as a chick. I doubt he would even be able to get his own meal without aid."

The Narnian beasts couldn't deny that, as poor old Brandy was definitely no hunter. He couldn't do any of the things the Badger had mentioned, and would probably be dead within a week on his own.

With that settled, they decided once and for all that Brandy would stay with them, and they would be his official carers, as per the will of Aslan. None of them had any qualms about this, as by now they had all grown quite fond of their strange pet, and Aslan's words of cherishing lower beasts only made it official.

One of the squirrels gave a little squeak of excitement, and ran up to the cage, peering in and cooing at their new pet. "You'll be staying with us forever now. Won't that be fun?"

_Brandy_ made no sound, and just sat where he was, sitting as still as a statue.

0000000000

And thus it came to be that Andrew Ketterley, son of Adam and formerly of London, became known forever thereafter as Brandy, Narnia's first pet.

It wouldn't be fair to the Narnians to say that they ever mistreated him. Far from it, as he spent his remaining years in Narnia, cherished and cared for by the Talking Beasts. Alas, though, he refused to admit that they could actually talk, and he even mentally blocked himself from believing that he had actually seen beings like the Centaurs and Fauns, believing instead that he had merely imagined them, right up until the day he died.

All the beasts were friendly enough towards him, and all took part in his care. The elephants kept watch and helped to bathe him, while the squirrels, having found a taste for it, would do the grooming. The dogs would take him for walks, with a beautiful chain and collar that they had the Dwarfs make for him, and the bears saw to his feeding.

Many of them would often play with him, trying to teach him tricks. It took a long time, as Brandy was clearly a slow learner, and a very nervous one at that, shown by how he cowered whenever any of them get close to him, but eventually they were able to teach him basic things like sit and roll over. Some of them, like the bears, would fuss him by picking him up and cuddling him, but all that seemed to do was make him ever more nervous than before, and even got him to start wailing.

Andrew, or Brandy as he was known from then on, completely closed his mind off to the Narnians, and, because he was the only one of his kind, his only source for company was his own. With no one to talk to, he spent his time listening only to his own thoughts, and within a week, he forgot how to speak. And within a month, he had all but lost his mind, and became nothing more than the dumb beast that the Narnians originally believed him to be.

The different species of Narnians more or less chose to go their separate ways. The Talking Beasts lived all around Narnia, depending on which species of animal they were. The Fauns and Satyrs lived together in the forests with the Dryads, living out their days in song and dance, while the Naiads and River Gods remained in the water, appearing only ever so rarely, as they preferred their water-based environment.

The Dwarfs discovered there to be beautiful metal and gems buried deep within the ground, so they dug out great mines to collect and craft them into fabulous items, the first of which was Brandy's collar and chain. They eventually made their own underground kingdom, and created fine items of wealth and beauty, such that no man on Earth had ever seen.

The Centaurs, finally, decided to make their homes high up in the hills and mountains, where they had a better view of the skies, and devoted their lives to watching the stars and deciphering their meanings.

Eventually, Brandy lived out the rest of his days and died a very old thing (the Narnians never did find out what he was, until many years later). The Narnians had him buried near where they had first found him, erecting a small statue commissioned by the Dwarfs, with his chain and collar hanging on it, in his memory. They missed him terribly, and often wondered if they had pleased Aslan by listening to his words and caring for their late pet, but Aslan never appeared to tell them.

Years passed, and then, by chance, some of the Narnians ventured beyond their natural borders, to see what was beyond them. What they discovered there was both extraordinary and wonderful, but which also later turned out to be the coming of grave times for some other race.

….

**So, there it is! Please review; I'm sure storyseeker will be keeping an eye on the reviews, so don't be shy.**

**Also, if you're wondering if I will ever continue the story of Digory and Polly, or if you're wondering whatever would happen to the Pevensie children in this AU, I will tell you that I have a few more ideas… so this fic might be continued.**

**Anyway, thanks for reading!**


End file.
